Roundup: Historians' Take

John Willingham: At Glenn Beck University, Hatred is the Curriculum

[John Willingham is a regular contributor to the History News Network (HNN.us) and also writes for Religion Dispatches. He is the author of The Edge of Freedom, A Novel of the Texas Revolution, to be published in early 2011.] Dull your wits and sharpen your prejudices—Beck University is back again. Now Beck’s temple of knowledge has a completely new curriculum, and this “semester” concludes with a sledgehammer course: “Presidents You Need to Hate.” This di

AC Solomon: Let's Hear It for Archaeology

[AC Solomon is an Africanist archaeologist, writer and former museum curator. She is a specialist in the history and prehistory of hunter-gatherers and their arts, and has published over thirty papers in scientific journals, including Scientific American] History matters. Michael Gove wants to shake up the school history curriculum and instil "narrative British history" in students. With the very different figures of Niall Ferguson and Simon Schama both reportedly on board

Barbara Ransby: The Rot of D’Souza’s Rant

[Barbara Ransby is a professor of history at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision and a founder of the activist group Ella's Daughters.] For the past 30 years, Dinesh D’Souza has fought against virtually every demand for social and racial justice that has emerged. From his 1981 outing of closeted students at Dartmouth to his ridicule of the anti-apartheid movement to his vitriolic attacks on affirmat

Julian E. Zelizer: Why Christine O'Donnell is Not You

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Arsenal of Democracy" and a book on former President Carter and editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration, to be published this fall by Princeton University Press.] In a very clever television advertisement, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell looks directly at the camera and says to voters: "I'm not a witch. ... I'm

Juan Cole: Ahmadinejad and the Limits of American and Israeli Power

[Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, maintains the blog Informed Comment. His most recent book, just out in paperback, is Engaging the Muslim World.] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Middle East’s populist answer to the American tea party, has stirred controversy with his trip to Lebanon, which will begin Wednesday. He is planning to visit villages in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel that have been reb

Ilan Stavans: Mario Vargas Llosa: Enlightenment Over Barbarism

[Ilan Stavans is a professor of Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College. He is general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, published last month.] The decision to award the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature to Mario Vargas Llosa is a triumph of reason over the forces of chaos in Latin America. At a time when the region has moved from dictatorship to fragile civilian government marred by corruption, illiteracy, violence (particularly against women), and an a

Thomas Meaney and Stephen Wertheim: Barack Obama and the Limits of Prudence

[Thomas Meaney and Stephen Wertheim are doctoral candidates in history at Columbia University.] IF YOU have waited to see Barack Obama lose his cool, your moment has come. After the president finished giving the interview published in the October 15 issue of Rolling Stone, he charged back into the room to deliver a parting salvo. Stabbing at the air, Obama berated Democrats for “sitting on their hands complaining.” He even questioned their motives. “If people now want to take their

Juan Cole: Israel Declares for Ethnic Nationalism

[Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History and the director of the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan.] The Israeli cabinet has approved a measure that would require persons applying for Israeli citizenship to affirm the “Jewish and democratic” character of Israel. The new oath would at the moment affect relatively

Stephanie Coontz: Why 'Mad Men' is TV's Most Feminist Show

[Stephanie Coontz teaches family history at the Evergreen State College. Her next book, "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s," will be published in January.] Historians are notorious for savaging historical fiction. We're quick to complain that writers project modern values onto their characters, get the surroundings wrong, cover up the seamy side of an era or exaggerate its evils -- and usually, we're right. But AMC's hit

Sharon Davies: When America Feared and Reviled Catholics

[Sharon Davies is a professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and the author of "Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race and Religion in America."] The mind-set is all too familiar: A radical religious group, lurking inside the country, owing loyalty to a foreign power, threatens America. No one denies that its members have a right to worship as they please, but good Americans, patriots, feel compelled to call for curbs against the menace they present. Be

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: Liu Xiaobo: His Writings, His Life, His Win

[Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, the Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, and the author, most recently, of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (published in April by Oxford University Press). For photos from the World's Fair, see the original article at The China Beat.] I’ve never met Liu Xiaobo. I only know him through his powerful writings—and through watching compelling interviews with him, most nota

Conrad Black: A Republican Sweep

[Conrad Black is the author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom and Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full.] As we are now a month from the midterm elections, I will boldly predict their outcome.... The Republicans should win a majority of about 15 in the House, consigning the Pelosi era to the proverbial dustbin.... Harry Reid has been the least distinguished Senate majority leader since the trivia-question trio of Wallace H. White, Scott Lucas, an

Timothy Snyder: Why Laptops in Class are Distracting America's Future Workforce

[Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University. His book “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin” out this month.] As these first few weeks of the college semester begin, professors look out expectantly into grand lecture halls, where they see, rather than faces of students, the backs of open laptops. The students, for their part, are looking intently at the laptop screens. What are they doing as they stare forward with such apparent focus? I teach

Edward Tenner: Glenn Beck, Woodrow Wilson, and Liberalism

[Edward Tenner is a historian of technology and culture. He was a founding advisor of Smithsonian's Lemelson Center and holds a Ph.D in European history.] The Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank is bemused by Glenn Beck's fixation on the abiding evil influence of Woodrow Wilson, which he links to Beck's defiance of the convention against comparing political opponents to Nazis. (I suspect that if the taboo has eroded for Beck and others it's because it's hard to call people commun

Andrew J. Bacevich: The Long War: Year Ten

[Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His bestselling new book is Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War.] In January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s charge to a newly-appointed commanding general was simplicity itself: “give us victories.” President Barack Obama’s tacit charge to his generals amounts to this: give us conditions permitting a dignified withdrawal. A pithy quote in Bob Woodward’s new book capt

Jonathan Zimmerman: Homophobia Hurts Straight Men, Too

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of “Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory.”] In the 1986 movie Stand By Me, an adult protagonist – played by Richard Dreyfuss – looks back wistfully on the friendships he formed in his youth. “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve,” he muses. “Does anyone?” For most American men, the sad answer is “no.” In surveys, men repo

Victor Davis Hanson: The Coming GOP Gift to the President

[Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.] After 2010, will he be Carter or Clinton? That's the ongoing parlor game now played among pundits over how President Obama will react to the Democrats' probable shellacking in midterm elections next month. Jimmy Carter stuck to his liberal age

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: California Dreamin’ at China’s World’s Fair

[Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, the Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, and the author, most recently, of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (published in April by Oxford University Press). For photos from the World's Fair, see the original article at The China Beat.] Shanghai can be a surreal place to visit in ordinary times. This is due to the juxtap

Victor Davis Hanson: The Gift of Obama’s Foreign Policy

[Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.] The Obama reset foreign polic

Fouad Ajami: Pax Americana and the New Iraq

[Mr. Ajami is a professor at The Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.] The chronicles now assign Iraq a distinction all its own. It holds the world record for the longest period of time spent without a government in the aftermath of a contested election. Seven months on, the Baghdad political bazaar is still open. (Consolation to the Iraqis: Holland had held the distinction of longest without a government.)